The parents of John Friend sent him out the door and off to school with a slice of buttered
sourdough toast in his little hands.

Friend, 28, serves today as vice president of Farm to Market Bread, an artisan-bread company in
Kansas City, Mo.

“There are a lot of people in the artisan-bread industry who shy away from doing things to their
bread that would mask the flavor,” he said, “but we’ve always been about the toppings.”

The truth is, toast is humble enough for even the shakiest of home cooks.

The easiest versions are embellished with melted butter and maybe spread with jam — a tasty
combination for any morning meal.

When savory toppings are thrown into the mix and creatively slathered on interesting artisan
breads, toast is transformed into a square meal appropriate for any time of day or night and just
about any occasion — including cocktail parties.

Slices of Farm to Market breads get an upscale twist at restaurants such as the Drop in Kansas
City’s Martini Corner district. One of the Drop’s more exotic topping combinations consists of red
grapes, Gorgonzola and a balsamic vinegar reduction.

At the Urban Table in Prairie Village, Kan., bruschetta toasts are topped with a luxurious
medley of roasted chicken, mushroom duxelle and fontina.

Even store-bought pimento cheese smeared on white-bread toast has the potential to impress.

Some toast masters pop slices in a slotted toaster, while others prefer to set the oven to broil
or throw them on a grill.

However it is prepared, toast is best made with day-old bread that has been evenly browned by
radiant heat to the point that the natural sugars and starch molecules on the face heat up to
create a slightly crunchy exterior and a warm, spongy center.

“The true toast addict is fussy about its preparation, choosing day-old baker’s bread to make it
and insisting it is eaten as soon as ready, for good toast must be consumed whilst hot. Left to go
cold, it becomes leathery and loses its aroma,” according to the authoritative tome
The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, who portrays toast as an almost exclusively
British fixation.

Marion Cunningham’s 1987 classic
The Breakfast Book includes a chapter on toast, and she notes that many early American
cookbooks offered chapters on how to create “modest-size meals on toast” to “offer a little more
nourishment and variety” to the diet.